[WikiEN-l] General Eisenhower

[John Lee]

Joe Anderson wrote:

>[[User:General Eisenhower]] is in breach of [[WP:USERNAME]] where is states:
>
>Names of VIPs or well-known historical figures ( e.g. Benjamin
>Franklin<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin>;
>  
>
>>Chuck Norris <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Norris>).
>>    
>>
>
>
>On his userpage he claims
>
>  I'm General and future president Eisenhower.
>
>
>I requested he changed his username, as to which a poll was
>started<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk%253AGeneral_Eisenhower&diff=55756520&oldid=55755552>however.
>
>According to GeorgeMoney, it was a bad faith nom : how is this?
>
>Eisenhower said on my talk page: I am not changing my username. General
>Eisenhower <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:General_Eisenhower> • ( at war
>or at peace <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:General_Eisenhower>)
>15:59, 29 May 2006 (UTC).
>
>He has not accepted he is in breach of policy, which he is. I am posting
>here to seek other people's views (as per [[WP:USERNAME]]) and to possibly
>make a namechange compulsory.
>
>Eisenhower would normally have been given a username block, however he
>slipped through the net to become fairly estabilished (albeit it not in the
>main namespace), which makes it harder.
>
>  
>
The policy Eisenhower is in violation of was added less than a week ago:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia%3AUsername&diff=54486848&oldid=54300648

Personally I think the change is stupid. We have to distinguish between 
dead and living figures; we don't want living figures to have accounts 
named after them because there is real risk for confusion. However, 
there is no risk whatsoever of confusing our Eisenhower with the former 
President Ike, whatever he may say on his userpage. I recommend not 
forcing Eisenhower to change his username, and removing the silly change 
to policy.

John